Table of Contents

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Survey of United States Congressional Candidates, 1976 (ICPSR 7570)

Principal Investigator(s):United States Federal Election Commission

Summary:

This data collection contains the results of a survey of
the candidates who ran for United States Senate and the United States
House of Representatives in 1976. By surveying such candidates, the
Federal Election Commission (FEC) was attempting to collect
systematically the views of those directly affected and regulated by
the Federal Election Campaign Act (FECA) as it was amended in 1974 and
1976. Those amendments called for significant changes in the rules for
campaign contributions and expenditures, restrictions on independent
expendi... (more info)

This data collection contains the results of a survey of
the candidates who ran for United States Senate and the United States
House of Representatives in 1976. By surveying such candidates, the
Federal Election Commission (FEC) was attempting to collect
systematically the views of those directly affected and regulated by
the Federal Election Campaign Act (FECA) as it was amended in 1974 and
1976. Those amendments called for significant changes in the rules for
campaign contributions and expenditures, restrictions on independent
expenditures and in-kind contributions, and public disclosure of all
federal campaign activity. The survey was conducted by Decision
Making Information of Santa Ana, California, and Hart Research
Commission in the first two months of 1976. In all, 850 respondents
(candidates, campaign managers, and other campaign representatives)
were interviewed by mail or in person. The survey questions focused on
seven major topics: (1) actual characteristics of the campaigns and
the candidates covered by the survey, (2) experiences during the 1976
election, (3) finances in 1976, (4) impact of the FECA on campaign
organization, (5) the role played by the Federal Election Commission
(FEC) as an information source for, and regulator of, campaigns, (6)
which items dealt with by the FECA were favored or opposed by
candidates and campaign managers who participated in the 1976
election, and (7) the respondent's overall feelings about what should
be done in the future.

Access Notes

Data in this collection are available only to users at ICPSR member institutions.
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Dataset(s)

Study Description

Citation

U.S. Federal Election Commission. SURVEY OF UNITED STATES CONGRESSIONAL CANDIDATES, 1976. ICPSR ed. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [producer and distributor], 197?. http://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR07570.v1

Universe:
The 2,150 United States House of Representatives and
United States Senate candidates in 1976 whose names appeared on a
primary or general ballot. Those candidates who filed a statement with
the FECA but failed to run in 1976, as well as those who failed in
1976 to complete reporting requirements for an office sought in
preceding years (1974 or 1972) were eliminated from the universe.

Data Types:
survey data

Methodology

Sample:
Stratified random sampling was done. The 850 respondents
represented an accurate cross-section of House and Senate candidates,
chosen by random interval selection methods and stratified by several
factors: Senate/House campaigns, primary/general campaigns, party
affiliation, and geographic regions.

Data Source:

personal interviews, and mailback questionnaires

Extent of Processing: ICPSR data undergo a confidentiality review and are altered when necessary to limit the risk of
disclosure. ICPSR also routinely creates ready-to-go data files along with setups in the major
statistical software formats as well as standard codebooks to accompany the data. In addition to
these procedures, ICPSR performed the following processing steps for this data collection: